24 March 2009
Give MSL a Real Name!
Posted by Ryan Anderson
The voting has begun to give the Mars Science Laboratory a genuine, non-acronym name! There are nine potential names, and NASA is asking the general public to submit their votes this week. So go vote and help take part in the next Big Mission to Mars!
How about: don’t bother if all you’re going to do is put it down on an easy landing site?
They need to regrow the nads they had in the 50’s, and put it down on a hydrothermal site. Playing it safe is as much as waste of money as crashing it into a canyon.
I disagree. By playing it safe, even if you land on the flattest, safest place on the planet, you will still have a functioning rover with powerful new capabilities exploring a new location on Mars. Obviously we’d like to do better than that and find a place that is both safe and especially interesting, but the number one priority is to land safely.
This article has been added to the Astronomy Link List.
Hmmmm… How about we re-name MSL the “Stephan Cobert Rover”?
(“Colbert”, sorry Steve).
How about naming it after a real astronomer who actually studied Mars and made contributions to our knowledge of the planet?
Or are we going to go with another sappy PC name again? Maybe Hope or Forebearance or Godspeed!
[…] Give MSL a Real Name! The Martian Chronicles It seems that NASA want the public to name more of its craft with the addition of the Mars Science Laboratory. Follow the link on this post to head off and add your own submission. […]